SPOTLITE

Pete Wiedman

Stantonsburg, North Carolina

Hi! My name is Pete Wiedman. I live in Stantonsburg, North Carolina and have
a wonderful family : a wife, Peggi, two sons, two daughters and a couple of
very special granddaughters. My pseudonym is Cryptopop and have been
solving cryptograms for almost 50 years. I was introduced to crosswords by
my parents at an early age and started doing cryps around 9 years old.
My uncle taught me the basics, prompting me to read several books on the
subject, and I've been hooked ever since.

I was born and lived most of my life in New York and am a semi-retired
Contracts Negotiator from the Aerospace Industry. Besides solving cryps, my
hobbies include chess, other games, puzzles of all types, reading, sports and
old movies. I also write short challenging cryps called "Zyptograms" which are
aimed at the more experienced solver. A couple of people from this site have
already tried my Zyps and one member solves them on a weekly basis. I was
formerly a paid contributer of the old New York Herald Tribune crossword
magazine, which is still in existence, but no longer publishes cryps--only
crosswords. I have also contributed Zyps to several other web sites as well
as creating a link called " Cryptopop's Hints" on http://www.freewebs.com/gidusko/cryptopop/">
which provides a complete summary of the basics for solving simple
substitution cryptograms.

I am glad to have found this site and look forward to doing the puzzles. Please
feel free to e-mail me and exchange info. Thanks for the opportunity to
introduce myself. Happy solving!

Zyptograms are constructed or composed on two bases:

1-Difficulty (unusual words)
2-Word play (anagrams, charades, etc.)

The Zyps offered on John's site represent a
mixed bag. Another site (Contest Center),